Geologic reservoirs may be used for various purposes such as hydrocarbon production, geothermal production, or carbon dioxide sequestration. These reservoirs are typically accessed by drilling boreholes through the earth to the reservoirs.
A borehole is drilled using a drill bit that is rotated by drill pipes coupled together in series and generally known as a drill string. As the borehole is being drilled, several instruments or tools disposed at the drill string may perform measurements that may be used to monitor drilling operations or characterize the earth formation being drilled. In order to provide these measurements to an operator, processing system or controller disposed at the surface of the earth in real time, these measurements may be transmitted electrically via a transmission line or cable disposed in the drill string. Because signals carrying the measurement information must traverse all of the drill pipes between the signal source and a receiver disposed at the surface of the earth or at another position in the drill string, signal couplers are installed at the ends of the drill pipes. The signal couplers allow the signal to be transmitted from one drill pipe to the adjacent drill pipe that is connected to it. These couplers may be recessed into the drill pipe making it difficult to connect them to a signal transmission line, which is even further recessed in the drill pipe. Hence, apparatus and method that improves the process of making those connections would be well received in the drilling industry.